JERRY POURNELLE: “Unemployment is over 10%. It wasn’t supposed to get that high. TARP was supposed to fix that. . . . If the health care bill passes, it will fundamentally convert these United States into a different kind of popular democracy, which generally means rule by a unionized bureaucracy organized to [...]
When Harvey Weinstein picked up the $2 million rights to A Single Man, he's said to have personally guaranteed director (and former Gucci creative director) Tom Ford an Oscar for Best Director or Best Picture. And though a statuette for either category seems unlikely given '09's 'stiff competition, especially in light of the Coen Bros.' fantastic A Serious Man, a nom(s) remains quite possible. Critical...
How little you have to do to get into the feature well of a slick magazine these days. Thomas Mallon's takedown of Ayn Rand in The New Yorker is not online, but it is so phoned-in and lacking in protein that even this synopsis of the article feels padded. There's 1943-vintage prissy caviling about Rand's writing style. ("It is, in fact, badly executed on every level of language, plot, and characterization.")...
Something that didn't cross my mind but did cross the collective minds of VGL and The Advocate: Is the marketing for Tom Ford's film A Single Man (adapted from Christopher Isherwood's classic gay novel) too straight? I don't know if...
New York's Pulltab Design recently sent me some images of a rooftop project that features a little bit of " urban rust ." Situated atop a 1900's walkup in Manhattan's East Village, the design is "a space for both reading and entertaining," consisting of a penthouse and garden. [photo by Elizabeth Felicella | courtesy Pulltab Design ] The penthouse and garden are two projects for...
Noam Chomsky in the Guardian: Anti-Americanism is a pure totalitarian concept. The very notion is idiotic. Of course you don’t deny other crimes, but your primary moral responsibility is for your own actions, which you can do something about. It’s the same charge which was made in the Bible by King Ahab, the epitome of evil, [...]
I dispatched Chapman Law student Jennifer Fry to attend the dedication of the Ayn Rand bust this week, and she got some outstanding pictures! The bust is by sculptor Juan Rosillo, who has done a number of other busts for...
Many congratulations to Carl Wilson - his book for the series on Celine Dion has made it on to Paste magazine's list of the 20 Best Books of the Decade. If you haven't read it yet, perhaps this might nudge you over the cliff. 20. Chuck Klosterman - Killing Yourself to Live 19. Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point 18. Donald Miller - Blue Like Jazz 17. Carl Wilson - Let's Talk About Love 16. Joseph...
The Alameda County judge who presided over the dispute between UC Berkeley and tree-sitters seeking to block a construction project, Barbara J. Miller, was found dead Friday at her home in Oakland. She was 58. Judge Miller was found a little after 6 p.m.,...
Whisper it, how among whispering ashes Her pale bright beauty comes, the moon's dark daughter, Lighting those ruins with her radiant madness... This past Monday night I had to pull off the side of the road to take in the full moon sitting above a low field. It was the first full moon for November, the first after the change of daylight savings, and with a semblance to the upcoming winter season. Beneath...
Zenyatta franked her stamp as one of the truly great racehorses in history here on Saturday when she won the Breeders Cup Classic. Unbeaten in 13 starts prior to this race she came from out of the clouds to beat among others the heavily-fancied Irish raider Rip Van Winkle, who was prominent early on but faded in the finishing straight and finished 10th. The five-year-old mare, trained by John Shirreffs...
by FanHouse Newswire Filed under: Horse Racing ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) -- What a gal! Zenyatta beat the boys in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday, running her record to 14-0 in the most impressive effort of her career. The 5-year-old mare rallied from last in the early going and fought off Gio Ponti in the stretch to win by a length at Santa Anita, beating a loaded field of 11 males. Quality...
[ Black Composers Series ; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Paul Freeman, conductor; Natalie Hinderas, piano; Sanford Allen, violin; Sony Music Custom Marketing Group DSO-1111 (2002). Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma worked closely with Maestro Paul Freeman on the CBS Black Composers Series on LP in the 1970s; parts of those recordings has been made available on this CD.] On November 3, 2009 AfriClassical...
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) –Just in case you've been in a sight-, sound- and Twitter-deprivation tank for the past two years, here's the lowdown on the "Twilight" franchise: It's a series of four books written by Stephenie Meyer about Bella, a human girl who hearts Edward, a vampire boy. This is awkward, due to Edward's predilection for snacking on platelets, but also because high school relationships...
NEW YORK – Tom Hanks is down with the single ladies. Hanks first racked his brain when asked for his favorite tune of 2009 while backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th anniversary concert Thursday. Then, the song came to him — though he didn't know all the words. "Dada-dada ring on it! Dada-dada ring on it!" he sang, as he tried to remember. "That is a damn fine song, the Beyonce song ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) –A major new photography exhibit is built around the idea that the eyes are just as important as the ears for appreciating and understanding rock 'n' roll. The Brooklyn Museum's sprawling show "Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present" opened on Friday as a study in the contrasts that run through the rock music subculture. Nearly 200 photographs, videos,...
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